Ukraine waited an entire year for the perfect moment to strike. Hidden deep within the Black Sea, one of Russia’s most valuable spy ships believed it was untouchable — until Ukraine finally made its move. In seconds, a carefully planned operation changed the balance of naval power and exposed what Moscow tried to conceal. Newly revealed evidence now shows the true scale of the damage. But to understand how it happened, we need to go back to the beginning.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Ukraine watched and waited for an entire year. For 12 months, it was on the hunt for something
00:05that Putin and his cronies were so desperate to hide. Patience was the name of Ukraine's game,
00:11as it knew that if it got this right, it would take away something that is immensely valuable
00:15to Russia in one fell swoop. Then it happened. The perfect opportunity arose for Ukraine to
00:21score a historic hill that destroyed what Putin was trying to hide in mere seconds.
00:26To find out more, we have to head back in time.
00:29From the start of Putin's invasion up until the spring of 2024, the Ivan Kurs prowled the waters
00:35of the Black Sea. The ship was one of the most important spy vessels that Russia has in its
00:39arsenal, and it's been tasked with providing electronic reconnaissance of Ukraine's movements,
00:44in addition to using electronic warfare to tackle drones and provide key communication
00:49and fleet command for the rest of the Black Sea fleet. Ukraine knew that it had to take out this
00:54spy ship, even though it represented little attacking threat in its own right. It was
00:58playing a key part in organizing Russia's warships and minimizing the strength of Ukraine's attacks.
01:04Ukraine couldn't rush in. The Ivan Kurs was slippery, elusive, a ship that Putin was desperate
01:09to protect at all costs because he knew that losing it would cripple the attacking power of
01:14the Black Sea fleet, in addition to leaving Crimea open to Ukrainian drone and missile attacks.
01:19It would take an entire year for Ukraine to find the perfect time to strike. But when that time came,
01:24Ukraine did what it had been waiting to do without hesitation. And, as you'll soon discover if you
01:29keep watching the video, the true scale of the damage that Ukraine managed to do to the Ivan Kurs
01:34is only now coming to light due to the publication of sensational new photos to showcase what a wreck
01:40this once-proud ship has become. But we'll get to that soon.
01:43First, the story of Ukraine's hunt for the ship is key. There were several times before Ukraine
01:48managed to score a direct hit against the Ivan Kurs. The country almost took out Russia's ship.
01:53May 2023 saw Ukraine come close in an attack that should have set alarm bells ringing for the Kremlin.
02:00Ukraine's explosive-filled drone boats managed to get a bead on the Ivan Kurs,
02:04as it sailed about 75 miles northeast of the Bosporus Strait, deep in the Black Sea.
02:08This was an opportunity, though, as Ukraine would soon learn. It wasn't the perfect time to strike.
02:14Ukraine's drone boats gave chase, having sailed over 310 miles just to reach the Ivan Kurs in the first place.
02:20Still, they had gotten to where they needed to be, and it was only something that was outside of Ukraine's
02:25control
02:25that stopped the Ivan Kurs from going down far sooner than it eventually did.
02:29Ukraine's drone boats tracked and followed the ship, but inclement weather made the Black Sea choppy,
02:34and it also did a number on the connection that Ukraine's drone boat operators had with their vessels.
02:39Ultimately, the drone boat got almost within range of the Russian spy ship before it exploded.
02:44Unfortunately, it didn't inflict any damage.
02:46The Ivan Kurs had escaped the attack by the skin of its teeth,
02:49and Ukraine would have to wait for another day to strike.
02:52That day came around 10 months later, on March 26, 2024.
02:57Militanyi published satellite photographs that appeared to show the badly damaged Ivan Kurs
03:02docked in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
03:05Ukraine's Navy spokesperson, Dmitry Pletinchuk, explained what had happened,
03:09stating that Ukraine had finally pulled off a series of missile strikes against the ship
03:13between March 23 and 24, which led to it being taken out of commission.
03:17At the time, we didn't know the extent of the damage that Ukraine had managed to do.
03:21All we had to go on were Pletinchuk's comments, as he reported,
03:24As for the Ivan Kurs ship, we can confirm the damage to the reconnaissance equipment.
03:28That is, in fact, now it's not combat-ready. It cannot perform its intended tasks.
03:33Not combat-ready doesn't necessarily mean the ship had been destroyed.
03:36But as we've learned now, the Ivan Kurs has been made absolutely useless to Russia.
03:41The few satellite photographs that were published in March 2024
03:44only offered some minor hints at how hard Ukraine had hit Russia's spy ship.
03:48But on February 26, several more photographs came to light
03:52and were published by the Crimean Wind Telegram channel.
03:54The strike on the Ivan Kurs was carried out on March 24, 2024.
03:59Satellite images showed damage to the stern, the channel reported.
04:03It added,
04:03The Russians denied damage to the ship, but after the incident,
04:06the reconnaissance ship never sailed again.
04:08The Russian Black Sea fleet carefully hid it in its harbors.
04:11The ship is currently non-combat-ready.
04:13That sort of response is typical of Russia.
04:16No matter how successful Ukraine is with its attacks,
04:18Russia will always claim that nothing happened, or if it did, damage done was minor.
04:22However, it's telling that Russia's spy ship has been languishing in the very same Sevastopol port,
04:27where it was when the initial satellite images of the damaged ship surfaced.
04:31Almost two years later, the ship hasn't moved an inch,
04:33and when you take a closer look at the photographs, it's easy to see why.
04:37Ukraine didn't just hit the Ivan Kurs after a full year of hunting.
04:40Ukraine crippled one of the Black Sea fleet's most vital ships.
04:43A close examination of the pictures shared by Crimean Wind,
04:47which have been taken of the Ivan Kurs at sea level, rather than from far above,
04:51demonstrates the full extent of the damage that Ukraine caused.
04:54The captain's bridge has been almost completely destroyed,
04:57which immediately takes away one of the vessel's core command centres.
05:01Structural damage has also been done to the Ivan Kurs' mast and funnel,
05:04the former of which used to carry the antenna system that was so vital to the ship's key tasks
05:09of gathering intelligence and transmitting information to Russia's other warships.
05:14There are other signs that the damage goes even deeper, as United 24 media reports.
05:18For one, camouflage netting is seen covering the vessel's forward deck.
05:22It's not a stretch to assume that the netting is in place,
05:25because somewhere underneath it is something that Russia doesn't want anybody to see.
05:28More damage seems to be the safest bet,
05:31and perhaps damage that is so extensive that Russia hasn't been able to repair it,
05:34despite trying for almost two years.
05:37Speaking of repairs, the photographs also show that the ship's mast is surrounded by construction
05:41scaffold.
05:42That implies that Russia is trying to fix its damaged ship,
05:45though it clearly isn't having much success.
05:48United 24 media adds that the equipment you would normally expect to see at the stern of
05:51the Ivan Kurs appears to be missing.
05:53Was it destroyed in Ukraine's missile strike too?
05:56Has Russia stripped the ship of that equipment because it knows that there is no hope for the
06:00Ivan Kurs to sail in the Black Sea again?
06:02We may never know the answers to these questions, but we do know this.
06:05Russia was lying when it tried to deny that Ukraine had hit the Ivan Kurs.
06:10Everything that we see of the ship now suggests that it hasn't been operational for the best
06:14part of two years, and given the extent of the damage that is still visible, it doesn't
06:18look like Russia is going to get it fixed anytime soon.
06:20And what this means for Russia is that the Black Sea fleet, which has been systematically
06:24weakened by Ukraine since Putin launched its invasion, has lost a very important vessel.
06:29How important?
06:30We'll come back to that question in a moment, but before we do, you are watching the military
06:33show.
06:34If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, take a moment to hit the button so you hear
06:37all of the latest Ukraine war news.
06:39Now, there is a big reason why Ukraine spent so much time hunting down the Ivan Kurs.
06:44A year's worth of resources adds up to no small amount of money and time, but it was all worth
06:49it because of just how important this ship was to Russia, and especially the Black Sea Fleet.
06:54Commissioned to the Black Sea Fleet in 2018, the Ivan Kurs was among Russia's most advanced
06:58intelligence collection ships.
07:00It was designed to replace Russia's bulkier Soviet-era spy ships, and we see that in its
07:05profile.
07:06The Ivan Kurs displaces no more than 4,000 tons of water, which is a very purposeful design
07:11choice to make the ship seem as unimposing as possible.
07:14Russia also made the ship so that it could stay at sea for as long as possible, as it has
07:18a range that exceeds 8,000 miles.
07:21For context, the Black Sea's largest east-to-west width is 730 miles, per the US Naval Institute,
07:27which means this one spy ship could sail return journeys across the Black Sea at its widest
07:32point almost five and a half times before it would need to be refueled.
07:35That endurance was key.
07:37It meant that when active, the Ivan Kurs acted like ever-present eyes and ears in the single
07:42most important stretch of water in the war.
07:45KCHF.ru, which is a Russian resource that covers many of the ships in the Black Sea Fleet,
07:50explains that Russia was particularly proud of this vessel.
07:53The ship, on its performance characteristics and capabilities, is considerably superior
07:58to similar vessels of previous generations, mainly due to the versatility and high level
08:02of automation and systems integration, the resource says.
08:06On top of that, the Ivan Kurs could present an attacking threat.
08:08It was loaded with six 9K38 Igla surface-to-air missile launchers, which combined to carry 32
08:159M39 missile the ship could use to fire on aircraft and helicopters.
08:19Plus, it has four 14.5mm MTPU-1 Zalo machine guns that it can use to fire on any vessels,
08:26including drone boats, that get close.
08:28This was an impressive ship, at least by Russian naval standards, and now it's ruined.
08:33Stuck in the Sevastopol port, where it's been for almost two years as a result of a historic
08:37Ukrainian drone strike that took a year to plan and appears to have crippled the Ivan Kurs forever.
08:42So we know what this single ship meant to Russia.
08:44But what does the confirmation of just how much damage that Ukraine's missiles managed
08:48to do mean for the Black Sea Fleet and Russia going forward?
08:52On the Black Sea Fleet front, this is a major black eye to a collection of ships that were
08:56supposed to dominate the naval aspect of the war.
08:59Ukraine wasn't even supposed to be able to compete with Russia in this department.
09:02It barely has a navy of its own, outside of patrol vessels and a handful of mine warfare
09:06ships.
09:07For Russia, the Black Sea was supposed to be a route through which it could send soldiers
09:11and equipment from Crimea and into mainland Ukraine.
09:14Instead, it's become a crypt for the crushed remains of many of the country's warships.
09:19Losing ships like the Ivan Kurs has played a huge role in the humiliation of the Black
09:23Sea Fleet that we have seen throughout the war.
09:25Remember that this was a ship that Russia specifically designed so that it would be able
09:29to see attacks coming, and yet it wasn't able to do a thing about the Ukrainian missiles
09:33that struck it.
09:33And with the ship gone, the Black Sea Fleet is more vulnerable than ever, as is Crimea,
09:38by the way, and we'll explain what that has meant for Russia in a moment.
09:41Coming back to the Black Sea Fleet, Defense 24 says that the failure of that fleet, which
09:46has lost about a third of its ships since Putin launched his invasion, is indicative of Russia
09:50not being prepared for the reality of modern naval combat operations.
09:54Aerial drones, seaborne drones, and missiles have torn through the Black Sea Fleet, to the
09:58point where Russia's warships have had to withdraw so far away from Ukraine just to stay out
10:02of range that they're no longer having any sort of noticeable impact on the war.
10:06The extent of the damage caused by Ukraine is such that the fleet was even forced to leave
10:11its home port of Sevastopol and withdraw to Novorossiysk, all to avoid Ukraine's assaults.
10:16Ukraine has even conducted a storm shadow missile strike against the fleet's headquarters in
10:20Crimea back in 2023, which just goes to show how long and how effective Ukraine's campaign
10:25to destroy Russia's naval power has been.
10:27And that brings us back to Crimea.
10:30By now it's clear that the loss of the Ivankurs is just one of many that Russia's Black
10:34Sea Fleet has had to endure.
10:36That fleet is more vulnerable without the Russian intelligence ship because it isn't getting
10:39the data that it needs to properly defend against Ukraine's attacks.
10:43The exact same thing can be said about the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula.
10:47It isn't a coincidence that Ukraine has been able to step up its attacks on Crimea now that
10:51the Ivankurs is stuck in the port that the rest of the Black Sea Fleet has been forced to abandon.
10:56Attacks on the bridges that lead into Crimea are a regular occurrence, as are Ukrainian strikes
11:00against key assets on the peninsula.
11:02In fact, February 20th brought with it news that Ukraine had pulled off a massive drone
11:07strike on the Belbek and Kachor airfields in Crimea, along with an attack on a fuel and
11:12lubricants depot in Zankhoi.
11:14And earlier in December, Ukraine pulled off attacks in Crimea that destroyed a pair of Su-27
11:19fighter jets and a MiG-31, along with several air defense units.
11:23These aren't isolated attacks.
11:26Ukraine's Crimea campaign has been in full swing for well over a year now, because Ukraine
11:30has done such a good job of establishing safe aerial corridors over the Black Sea.
11:35Would having Ivankurs operational have allowed Russia to stop all of these strikes?
11:39Probably not.
11:41But Russia may have been able to stop some of them.
11:43The ship could have been sailing through the Black Sea while serving as an early warning
11:46system for Russia's forces on the Crimean peninsula.
11:49Instead, it's stuck in port and clearly in need of some major repairs if it's ever going to
11:53sail again. In a campaign that has seen Ukraine slowly and surely degrade Russia's defenses,
11:58the destruction of the Ivankurs almost two years ago may have been the key step that opened
12:03up so much of what we're now seeing Ukraine do in Crimea.
12:06Given that context, it's clear why Ukraine was willing to spend a year hunting this ship.
12:10The benefits on the back end, which include the untold millions, perhaps even billions
12:15of dollars in equipment that Russia has lost in Crimea, and the weakening of Russia's
12:18assaults against the Ukrainian mainland, make that year hunting extremely worthwhile.
12:23You would think that Russia would have been working as hard as it could to get the Ivankurs
12:27back online, especially with Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet having become so vulnerable.
12:32But it hasn't.
12:33Way back in January 2025, the Defense Post revealed that Russia had abandoned all of its
12:37ship repairs in Crimea due to fears that Ukraine would strike its repair crews as they worked.
12:42Pletinchuk was again the bearer of good news for Ukraine as he said,
12:45The main facilities for the Russians are still in Crimea, but we've demonstrated in practice
12:49that using repair bases for the Black Sea Fleet is no longer possible.
12:53Pletinchuk said of Sevastopol, adding,
12:55To repair their ships, they first need to bring them there, and now no one will be doing that.
13:00And though Russia does have some ship repair facilities in Novorossysk, where the remains
13:03of the Black Sea Fleet are based, they're not anywhere near the size and scale needed to serve
13:08the entire fleet. The nearest shipyard beyond Novorossysk is in Zelendolsk, which is in the
13:13Republic of Tatarstan. But that's about 2,200 kilometers or around 1,360 miles away, and any
13:20warship that Russia sends there likely won't be able to get back into the Black Sea due to Turkey's
13:25banning of warships sailing through the straits that lead into the Black Sea. And even if Russia's
13:30ships could reach Zelendolsk, the facility can only repair small missile ships that are capable of
13:34sailing into what was otherwise a landlocked location. Think back to the photographs we
13:39discussed earlier in the video. We told you that there was scaffolding around the mast of the Ivankurs.
13:45That would make it seem like repair work is ongoing. But if Russia hasn't been repairing
13:49ships in Sevastopol since at least January 2025, and possibly earlier, then what we're really seeing
13:55in that photograph is the remnants of a repair effort that was abandoned, along with the Ivankurs,
13:59where Russia withdrew from Sevastopol. Russia's destroyed spy ship, which was once the
14:04intelligence-gathering crown jewel of the entire Black Sea fleet now sits alone in port. With no
14:09maintenance, it will rot away, slowly, and under the watchful gaze of Ukraine. The only reason that
14:14the Ivankurs hasn't been sent to the bottom of the Black Sea is that Ukraine knows it will be a
14:19waste
14:19of a missile or drone to do so. The ship is languishing in an empty port. Now the Ivankurs is
14:24little more than bait that Ukraine can use to draw Russia's repair crews out. Russia could try to fix the
14:29ship. It could try to make the Ivankurs seaworthy again. But we'd be willing to bet dollars to
14:34donuts that any Russian crew that is dumb enough to try to reverse the effects of Ukraine's year-long
14:39hunt will be met with missiles and drones that take them out, along with the spy ship they're
14:43trying to fix. It's fair to say that Russia's spy ships haven't been having the best time of it over
14:48the last few months. And that goes for what they're trying to do outside of Ukraine, along with what
14:52the Ivankurs were supposed to be doing in the Black Sea. Back in November, a Russian spy ship targeted a
14:57Royal Air Force aircraft near the UK. But all that Putin achieved there was to put the UK and NATO
15:02on
15:03high alert. Find out more in our video and if you enjoyed this video, be sure to subscribe to the
15:08Military Show for more analysis of the many failures of Russia's Black Sea fleet.
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